Articulated vehicles with a vehicle joint with a damping device for damping the movements of the two vehicle parts connected by the vehicle joint during travel are known more specifically from road transport as so-called articulated buses. The vehicle joint hereby comprises two joint segments connected by a bearing, which allow such an articulated vehicle to bend in order to drive around a bend. One of the joint segments is connected to one vehicle part by way of metal rubber bearings, in order to allow pitch or to a small extent also rolling movements.
Such a vehicle comprises a damping device. The damping device itself typically includes two piston cylinder dampers, which are disposed on the vehicle joint on both sides of the center longitudinal axis of the vehicle or of the vehicle joint. Hereby, the piston is disposed on one joint segment and the cylinder on the other joint segment in a respectively rotatable manner. More specifically when the articulated vehicle is a so-called pusher vehicle, a control system is provided, which adjusts the rigidity of the vehicle joint depending amongst others on the steering angle, the position of the two vehicle parts relative to each other and the travel speed. This is because in a pusher vehicle it is the rearmost axis of the articulated vehicle that is driven. In so-called puller buses, the drive occurs by way of the last axis of the front vehicle part, the rear part being merely pulled like a trailer. In such puller vehicles, such complex systems for control of the joint are not required. Pusher vehicles are very widely used; in this respect, the joints including the control systems for the damping device of the joint have proven their worth.
However, the piston cylinder dampers are relatively bulky. Due to their size, such piston cylinder dampers currently in use are also heavy. When building articulated buses, one always aims to reduce their weight in order to save fuel, but also in order to increase the payload if necessary, or at least to keep it the same, especially since the weight of modern buses continuously increases due to additional assemblies such as ramps or air conditioning for example.